Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017, was the principal celebrant at the memorial Mass last evening at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica (video). Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, celebrates Mass today at the late Pontiff’s tomb.

On January 1, the Church commemorates the 59th World Day of Peace. Pope Leo’s message for the day, dated December 8 and released on December 18, is entitled “Peace be with you all: Towards an ‘unarmed and disarming’ peace.“

The jubilee “has been—and continues to be—an extraordinary jubilee in terms of the level of participation and in terms of the spirit of genuine, tangible hope we have seen in the millions of pilgrims who have come, and who continue to come, to Rome,” Roberto Gualtieri said in an interview with Vatican News. “Rome gave the jubilee great commitment and many volunteers, but we must not forget that the city received an enormous amount from this jubilee, thanks to which the face of the city has improved.”

In his 2023 year-end homily, Pope Francis criticized the city of Rome for its deficient functionality. In his 2024 year-end homily, Pope Francis thanked the city’s mayor for “moving the city forward” through construction projects.

“The dove of peace invites us to look upwards, towards that star that leads to Life and Truth,” according to L’Osservatore Romano. “But the man-machine, instead, stubbornly turns its gaze downwards, closed in on itself and its own selfishness.”

The editorial continued:

It is a machine with human features, increasingly human, with ever greater potential, almost without limits. And it looks (with astonishment?) at the being it holds in its hands: the dove of peace. Peace is in its hands. It can suffocate it or release it to realize its dream of hope.

Citing Pope Leo’s Message for the World Day of Peace, the Vatican newspaper added that while AI has had promising results in health care, there have also been “disturbing signs: let us think of its use in the military field.”

In 2024, 1,682,100 people attended papal events at the Vatican, according to ZENIT News’s compilation of data from the Prefecture. The last time the attendance figure surpassed 3 million was in 2016.

Bishop Derek Jones, who split from the Anglican Church of North America, has announced the formation of a new Anglican Reformed Catholic Church. The new group claims 14 parishes. The group from which it has seceded, the Anglican Church in North America, was established in 2009 by Anglicans dismayed by the liberal trends in the worldwide Anglican communion. The latest schism has been marked by lawsuits over contested property and legal authority.

Bishop Jones says of his new group:

We seek to provide a stable church home characterized by clear leadership accountability, uncompromising doctrinal standards, biblical stewardship of resources, and an abiding connection to Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

The group has affiliated itself with the Union of Scranton, a coalition of “Old Catholic” churches that broke with the Vatican in the 19th century.